Life with four school children

Yes, all four are in full-time education now.  Sophie, who 18 months ago would not let me leave the room has taken to school in a magnificent way.  She loves it, it has ignited something in her, and she is on the go constantly, amazing us with her speech, observations and zest for life.  In fact she is slightly sad at weekends when she can't go to school!!  What a turn around, and I am so proud that she has done all this in her own time, without coercion. 

They had to go dressed as a Roald Dahl character  the other day, who better to go as than "Sophie" from the BFG! 

 

Ethan went as the BFG and I made him is own Sophie doll to make him a giant.  However, he will not let me post a picture of him dressed up, and I respect that.

 

Luke has had his hair cut, in accordance with his new school's policy.  How grown up he now looks.  



Life with four children out the house has been "interesting".  I have been keeping busy, such as creating some Scooby Doo characters...

...preparing more wool for spinning, in order to fulfill another custom order...

...making brooches to sell at a Guild stall in November...

...making felted soap using the wonderful soap from Michelle over at Handmade Haven.

But I find it so difficult to get motivated.  I seem so much more productive when I have people around me.  I guess I haven't had this emptiness or "me" time to this degree for the last 14 years, and it will take some getting used to.  The frustrating thing is that I can't get down to the allotment in all this nice weather we have had due to injuring my knee a month ago, and still not being able to kneel down. 

Still finding the joy in the world around us though.  Just look at this web that spanned the double driveway and garden the other morning!! 

Wishing you all a wonderful autumn, and those adjusting to a new rythym, I know exactly how you feel!!

New starts

 September is always a time for new starts, and this September is no different.  Luke is off to High School.  Getting there under his own steam, and at a school where only a handful of people from his old school are going.  Also note the hair!  He had to have it cut to collar length, much to our consternation, but Luke accepted the schools decision, and is happy with his new style.

Sophie starts school too, which has coincided with a massive burst of independence (alas not independent in walking, she still prefers to be carried, and is getting really heavy now!)  She is enjoying school, and the first day walked in, waved goodbye to me at the door, whislt all the other parents were going in with their child, all I could do was stand on the periphery and watch her take her first steps to independence.  How she has changed from that child who would not let me leave her at pre-school 18 months ago. 

 

We are seeing how she manages school over the next few weeks, as she has the option of staying doing part-time until Christmas as she is one of the younger ones. 

 

 

Alec has gone back to school minus his best friend who has moved schools.  He is coping well, and is hoping to join a couple of clubs such as photography and chess.  Ethan is in his final year of first school (how did that go so quick?) and is loving being back with his friends. 

 

As for me, I am at home now, by myself for the first time in 14 years!  It can get very quiet, but I have so much to keep me busy, especially with my Aisling Designs shop that has a steady flow of custom orders, and I have been finding time to create extra things to stock my shop with too.

A rainbow party

A rainbow party with a few friends was how Sophie chose to celebrate her birthday (a week later)!  We spent the few days before hand preparing a 6 layer birthday cake, making rainbow party bags, melting crayons to make rainbow crayons to go in the party bags, making a "pin the pot of gold at the end of  the rainbow" game, and a treasure hunt where they had to find numerous stickers around the garden, each a different colour of the rainbow.

 Of course there was pass the parcel too, and musical statues.

 There has to be jelly, rainbow jelly!

 I love the look on her face here, I think it is fair to say she had a nice time!

 And inside the cake, of course, it was a rainbow!!

My intention to take lots of photos failed, because I was too busy enjoying myself too!

A week of sun and fun

 How wonderful to have had a week of sun, and even better that it should coincide with the first week of the summer holidays.  I've been able to get out in the garden, and just look at Sophie, holding a snail!  The little girl who was afraid of all things small and crawly.  She even converted some older girls (they turned up when Sophie was holding a worm in her hand, and their first reaction was to squeal.  But when they realised they were being shown up by a three year old, they too wanted to join in, and so began an hour long bug hunt, with Sophie declaring "let me show you about nature!"

One of the yearly traditions now is to make dens when I 've given the garden it's yearly trim.  So this years den incorporated the slide as structure!

 And there was a little pretend campfire too!  No, Alec is not trying to sit on the rhubarb, he's crouching by the fire!

 Then, after the novelty of the den wore off (the following day) the boys were complaining they were bored (along with next doors boys)  I gave them some wool, and scissors and said "see what you can make with that".  I had visions of them binding twigs together to make different things, but zipwires for action men seemed far more exciting, and it kept them entertained the whole day!

 And by the end of the day the garden looked like it had been attacked by a giant spider!  They were also using the wool to make an assault course!

 As for me, it would have been lovely if it had been all sat in the sun carding and spinning, in reality this picture was about 5 minutes worth of my week.  I have been doing some heavy duty gardening, some SERIOUS cleaning and tidying of the house (not before time too) and re-roofing the playhouse, as it was missing part of the felt since the winter, and this was the first dry opportunity to get it done!

Definitely taking things a bit easier today, and mightt fit in a bit more of the carding and spinning.

The end of an era

 Today is the last day I will have a child in pre-school.  A sign that our family is growing up.  Sophie went laden with gifts of homemade fudge in sweet little boxes for heer teachers, very excited to give them out too.

 Ethan will miss his teacher, Miss Rose.  She has really "got" Ethan, and has even seen his cheeky side, which is a sure sign he is comfortable around her.  I made a needle felted brooch for her, styled on a rose, which I felt was appropriate for Miss Rose.

 Luke has his last day at middle school today.  He too went laden with gifts for the teachers that have given him inspiration and support. He seems to be taking the whole move to high school in his stride, and is looking forward to the adventure ahead.

Alec hasn't taken any presents in, as he will be having the same tutor throughout his time at middle school.  That isn't to say things won't be changing for him.  His best friend is moving to a different school, and I know Alec will miss him alot.  Fortunately though, he only lives around the corner, so hopefully they will still be able to see alot of each other. 

We are all looking forward to the summer break, with little adventures planned, and the opportunity to work to our own timetable (ie not racing round like headless chickens first thing in the morning!!)  Hope you all have an enjoyable Summer break too, and look forward to the adventures ahead.

Redressing the balance

 Looking through my recent posts one would could easily be mistaken in thinking this was solely a blog about crafting.  The children have been very quiet (well on the blog anyway!)  I can assure you this is not a true representation of life!!  There has been the rediscovering of old toys, even moreso now we have been having a bit of a clearout, they are actually playing with the toys that are due to be found new homes!!

Mum made a whole load of playdough to illustrate something at church in a service she was involved in.  Guess who got the cake tin full of playdough?  Sophie!!  I can't quite remember what had been created here, but it all had a meaning of somekind or other.

 Alec and Ethan took part in a karate tournament.  It was great to see what they had learned, even if it was a bit strange watching them sparring with their opponents.  Alec was just a little too big for the small group, so was against children that were sometimes quite a bit bigger than he was.  He did everso well and gave it his all.  He got a third place medal for the Kata he did.  Ethan was very pleased with a second place trophy and third place medal for his sparring.  They are really loving their Karate, and am glad that they kind  of stumbled into it, as it is probably something I would not have thought about for them.

 Sophie has been doing all kinds of things.  Here we were sorting some sea shells she found squirreled away from a long ago beach trip.

 She has been painting.  She definitely has her own style, and I love he choices of colours. 

 And in a rare dry spell last week (I say dry, it was spitting, but about as dry as it was going to get) we headed to the park.  Sophie was rather disappointed there were no other children there, but I guess everyone else thought it would be too wet or something like that!  Here she is being a pirate (one of her favourite games at the moment)

 And of course, what else do you do with standing water if your name is Sophie?!

So they are around.  Luke and Alec both have tests this week (SATS for Alec and some tests to determine sets for High School next year for Luke) Luke has been fighting off some virus which has left him with awful headaches, stomach ache, and generally feeling bleurgh.  He had us  worried over the weekend though as the symptoms he was showing were similar to meningitis except there was no rash.  A trip to the out of hours doctor allayed our fears, and Luke certainly started to feel better that day.  But it looks like it is going to be one of those things that lingers for a while.  Just what you need when doing tests :( 

And news on the weight loss front, I've lost 6 1/2 lbs in two weeks, so feeling rather pleased at that.

Ok, up to date now!!

Pitter, patter,SPLOSH, SPLOSH, SPLOSH!!

 Yes, it's wet, very wet!  I know we need it, the ground needs it, the plants need it, but all at once?  All outdoor plans for the allotment have been put on hold, but it hasn't stopped the planting of seeds thank goodness.  We'll just have a massive panic when we don't have enough clear ground to plant them all! 

The boys have been waking up in the attic rooms to the pattering of the rain on the roof.  Something quite comforting about that, being all snug and warm knowing it is the complete opposite outside, but it doesn't help get them out of bed any earlier!!

 Sophie is about the only one who has relished the weather.  Her comment the other morning was "Look mummy it is raining puddles!"  She rather likes puddles, jumping in them, digging the mud up from the bottom of them and letting it run through her fingers, throwing things in them, sswishing them, kicking them... the list is endless...

 ... as is the wet clothes!!  Notes the canvas shoes, the only things I could get on her feet whilst waiting for her wellies to dry out AGAIN!!

 A mud splattered innocent face!!

 And more muddy, soaking wet clothes!  I have resigned myself to this!!

 I have been taking the opportunity to crack on with the second ring for the Guild exhibition.  My needle felted robin sat on some eggs, and I am now crocheting billions of leaves to make a safe little enclave for the robin to raise its brood.  It's so hard to get a good camera angle to show what it is like.  But I am rather pleased with it!

 Gimli is not a fan of the wet!  He has spent much of this week like this!  And when he ventures out he is shaking the wet from each paw with every step he takes.  If he gets caught in the rain he comes in miaowing in a most indignant way!

How have you been spending this wet weather? I am hoping we might just get a glimmer of sun soon!

Seven Days of Half Term

 The week started with a visit from a friend we have been trying to meet up with for a while.  Car problems and mid-day pre-school runs meant that we had very little time to travel and meet up, so we eventually managed it on the first day of half term. So lovely to catch up and see the younger children play so well together.

By Tuesday we had a car back.  So after dropping Stan and Stuart's brother off at the train station in Birmingham for a little adventure of their own, we went to visit the BBC studio at The Mailbox. There we could have a go at presenting the news, or the weather forecast or a bit of Newsround. Very difficult, and we got some rather funny results, as we saw when we played back what we had recorded.

. 
 We gave the big car a bit of a spruce up.  After it had been used for Stuart's daily commute along the motorway, it was looking decidedly salty, so we restored it to it's original black colour.  Sophie, when asked to clean the wheels, cleaned the tyres, well that will teach me for not being specific enough!!

 Wednesday was a day of utter chaos!  9 children running riot in the house!  Luke had a friend over to play WarMachine.  Alec had a friend over because we had been promising him for a long time that he could have this lad over.  Ethan had a friend over as he was feeling left out, and we got joined by the boys from next door too!  I made a batch of scones using the scone mix I got the other week.  17 scones lasted all of about an hour or two!

Thursday saw Sophie decide to make a house out of a box.  It had windows, a door, and later in the day curtains.

 It got played with by anyone (or thing) that could fit in it!  Sophie was very disappointed that I could not fit in it, and to be honest, so was I!

 By later in the week it was becoming more and more tatty, but still played with!  I am actually amazed at how many people could fit in it.  I found Alec and Ethan using it as a bit of a retreat with the iPad for entertainment!

Another, pretty much, home-based half term, but that is just how we like it! 

Joining in with Jacqui again with a review of the week.

Just a reminder, feel free to enter the giveaway .  Closing date is 22nd February.

Seven Days

Joining Jacqui aka "The Barefoot Crofter" with a review of the last seven days.  Because even when you think nothing special is happening, if you look closely enough you find it! 

After last week was very much an out of the house kind of week, this week has been more home based.  Monday whilst getting very cold walking back from the shops I stopped to put Sophie's gloves on her for the umpteenth time, and happened to stop outside a friend of my Mum's house.  She saw us and invited us in to warm up.  Sophie got to play with her grandson, and we had a lovely impromptu chat.  This happened again on Tuesday, calling in to a friend, just to check her daughter was ok, after seeing her daughter very distressed earlier, and another cup of coffee and a lovely chat.  It really made my week.

Other lovliness that has been happening...

...finishing off the bag for the three little pigs

...catching Sophie making shadow puppets whilst eating her lunch... 

 ...having the time (and ingredients) to be able to make Sophie's demand for chocolate cake a reality...

 ...whilst I was at Guild, Sophie had popcorn, I do hope she shared it!

 A big package of woolly goodness (if a little dirty) arriving in the post, with the promise of endless amounts of dyeing and spinning.  Thank you Dawn!

 And more little knitted animals, this time the Billy Goats Gruff. Awaiting the arrival of the troll, and a bag, so that they too can make their way to their new home.

Looking forward to the week ahead, which I think will  be a good mix of home and out and about. But I guess we will just have to wait and see what it brings.